38 Drugmakers Tricked State Medicaid Agency, La. Says

Law360, New York (October 16, 2013, 1:03 PM EDT) -- Louisiana has accused 38 pharmaceutical companies including Abbott Laboratories Inc., Mylan Inc. and Warner Chilcott Corp. of collecting undeserved Medicaid reimbursements for potentially unsafe drugs by concealing they were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a suit removed to federal court on Tuesday.

The state is alleging that the drugmakers submitted phony National Drug Codes — universal product identifiers used by the FDA — that Louisiana Medicaid relied on in determining that the drugs were eligible for reimbursement, when in fact...